Food & Nutrition
We have over 20 years of experience in breeding terriers and in that time have gained a wealth of knowledge and expertise with dog and puppy food. Proper nutrition is essential for your puppy’s health and well-being, and choosing the right food can make a big difference in their overall development. This page offers insight into our practices and provides recommendations that you may find helpful in caring for your new puppy as it grows, all to quickly, into a mature adult.
Puppy Chow
Your Puppy is eating Lifes Abundance All Life Stages Dog Food. You can order it to be delivered to your door and to sign up for autoship and get the best price at www.lifesabundance.com/annesairedales
I send every puppy with a 3lb bag of food. Our Dogs and Puppies Eat Life’s Abundance All Life Stages dog food. So if you decide to switch to a different brand, you just mix them together and wean them onto their new food slowly to avoid diarrhea/belly ache. Purina ProPlan puppy chow is a good middle of the road puppy chow. California natural, Blue Buffalo, and Fromm are also really great puppy foods, though we do feel like Life’s Abundance has been the absolute best choice for our dogs and puppies.
Puppies NEED a high fat (15-20% fat) and protein (at least 22%) diet their first year because they are growing so much. Life’s Abundance All Life Stages dog food has 26% protein and 16% fat. The higher fat and protein the better; most puppy chows are made that way. I have seen MAJOR growth deficits in puppies fed a cheap, low fat and protein diet in their growing years. Just like human food, check your dog food labels, check fat and protein and look at the ingredients.. Also, the higher the meat content, the less fillers are in it and the better it is for your puppy, this also reflects the price often times.
We feed our puppies the Lifes Abundance All Life Stages dog food. I will stand behind any of their products, they are a great company that makes great pet food. If you prefer to switch to one of their other dog food varieties that is completely ok! My only caveat to that would be that I would recommend researching/talking with your vet if you decide to go with their grain free dog food. Some dogs have allergies that require grain free (none of our dogs ever have), however grain free diets for dogs have not been proven to be of any benefit and some argue grain free diets are detrimental to a dog’s health. So talk to your vet if you decide to go grain free.
Feeding Schedule
Everyone usually asks me about the feeding schedule. Our vet recommends us leave food out for the puppies all the time when we have the whole litter here with us. We don’t want anyone getting bullied out and not getting enough to eat! But once you get him/her home, you want to put her on a routine schedule with eating.
Feeding 2-3 times a day is recommended, but just try to do the same schedule everyday for the most part. Do what works for you, if 3 times a day is not feasible, then do 2. But do something that you can actually stick to consistently!
As far as the amount goes, puppies grow SO FAST, you are supposed to go with the amount on the back of the bag that gives the puppies weight, and change it as they grow. So go with that amount, divided into the amount of times a day you feed. Airedale puppies are usually around 8-11 lbs. at 8 weeks old, Welsh puppies are usually around 4-6 lbs. at 8 weeks.
Feeding your dog on a consistent schedule every day gives you a chance everyday to have their full attention on you, when you can work with them on some training and manners while you have their undivided attention as they wait to be fed.
Why feed on a consistent schedule?
For a puppy, putting them on a feeding schedule is VERY VERY helpful, to them AND MOSTLY TO YOU!! For one thing, it’s very helpful when initially housetraining, because it allows you to know when they are “full” and “empty”. I recommend keeping track of how long it takes them after eating to go to the bathroom, you can literally put them on a bowel schedule (of course it may vary a little, but it gives you an idea, especially at first).
Second, a HUGE part of training a dog, and especially a smart dog like an Airedale or welsh, or Lakeland is being the alpha. For dogs, being the provider of food is definitely something they look UP to you as. Take advantage of this!! Once they figure out that they are about to be fed is an opportune time to work on training them a little bit and just general manners. You have their full attention multiple times every day and they want their reward (food!).
Airedales, Welshs, and Lakelands are all smart enough that once you get them house-trained and trained in general a lot of people leave food out for them all the time. That is fine, they are smart dogs and won’t generally overeat. But its very helpful to use feeding time as a great tool in that first year or so.
Benefits of Life’s Abundance include:
- Holistically formulated (no strange ingredients or unhealthy preservatives)
- Fresh Home Delivery (shipped directly to your door… your pet’s food doesn’t sit in a warehouse for months on its way to you)
- NO recalls in company history
- Contains 3 different sources of protein, antioxidants including vitamins A, C, and E.
- GUARANTEED pre and pro-biotics
- You feed less, they poop less (more nutrient dense)
- HIGH fat and protein, essential in a dogs diet, especially in a growing puppy
Check out this blog on our website that walks you through signing up for autoship to get the greatest discount on your puppies food, see the feeding chart and learn more.
